Updated - 20~08~2019
Raythe
Cybertron, Pan Pacific, 28th Paxian 3217, Iacon
Some weeks were gone since first I arrived to Pan Pacific. Cherno was already updated, Tacit Ronin was on his way, and I must say that it had even a cooler Conn-Pod than Cherno, and the next one in my list was Romeo Blue. There was a pair of Mark II Jaeger, one recently built and a second one on its way. There were newer, they were faster, but they weren't what the Mark I were.
I always looked up to the blue titan and its pilots. They were heroes to me. Every Jaeger had its special thing, but the Iaconian one had something more. I think it was because of the colours, or maybe because it was the first released Jaeger who saved entire cities from destruction, or just because of its former pilots. Some months ago, Romeo was out of duty, because it had had few failures in the past that needed to be repaired. Now that the robot was on its build up way, both pilots were retired, leaving two unfilled vacant places. I admit it, I was dreaming with taking the command of that Jaeger, but my destiny showed me once more I was wrong, again. It turned out that my future had nothing to do with Romeo Blue, but mid time, I let my mind day dream at will.
During my few weeks in there, I met thousands of bots, I was shown the base, I learned how to live in there and it seemed that I became as popular as Shockwave, and soon everyone in Pan Pacific knew me as 'The Kiddo', it seemed my age was the most surprising thing for them. I really enjoyed my work. Even if we had hard tasks, for me, every workday was a joy-day. But not always was the same.
One day, while walking around with Ratchet, I saw a large clock, o better said, a timer, which showed the following numbers: 000 : 00 : 14 : 32. I stood in front of it and I asked, "Ratchet, what's this?"
"The Hangar War Clock. We reset it after every Terrorcon attack. There's another one in the command station. Keeps everyone focused." He explained. "There are fourteen minutes left until the next attack."
"How do you know how much is left?" I was confused.
"Shockwave works on the calculations for it. Whenever there's an attack, he predicts the next one by studying the time parameters and show ups algorithms. He has discovered that the interval of appearance shortens between every attack." Ratchet informed me. "We're lucky to have Shockwave among us. If not, we would have already lost Tyger Pax and Axiam."
"So there are just fourteen minutes left..." I murmured. "... But there's calm around here. Shouldn't be everyone moving around? Maybe Shockwave predicted it wrong." I suggested. One part of me hoped Shockwave was wrong, maybe the Terrorcons decided to leave us alone. But the other part of myself prayed Primus to make those calculations correct. We could prevent Terrorcons making land on cities were zillions of sparks could be risked.
"Shockwave never fails." Ratchet said serious. "He predicted this attack six months and three weeks ago, and he got it right." The old bot looked at me, "They are working in the hangar next to this one. They're preparing the newest Jaeger, the Simfurian Mark II called Diablo Intercept, and also Cherno Alpha."
"Oh! Understandable." I muttered thoughtfully, looking down to the ground.
"Come one, we will follow the battle from the command station." Ratchet stated.
We walked all the way up to Loccent and soon we entered in, just in time to witness the start up of Cherno. We could hear the Steam brothers talking with Alpha. "Ok, we're ready to go at any time, sir."
"The Terrorcon you're facing is a Cat. II, bigger than the last one. Its code name is Raythe. It's heading Nexus." Prowl informed. "Ok, guys, Vosian Protocol: don't die." He pressed some buttons and then he added, "Good luck out there." The two Jaegers left the base, with steady steps and their objective clear in mind.
We located Shockwave at opposite corner where we were, working in calculations, trying to predict the next attack. I also saw Soundwave working in silence as always, locating the energon signals the Terrorcon emitted. But there was something missing there... Or better said, someone.
"Where's Laserbeak?" I asked silently.
"Can you see that screen?" My mentor signalled the main panel. "Those images are provided by Soundwave's minicon. Thanks to her we can see what's going on, and also help the pilots."
"Hum." I nodded. There was a silence while everyone worked in their places, without daring to raise their gazes. "Ratchet, I think everyone in here is more than nervous, they are tense." I whispered him from the corner where we were. "Why? I mean, I understand that Terrorcons are dangerous and they can cause huge disasters, but our pilots are trained and the Jaegers were improved. There's no reason to be in such conditions."
"No, Knockout, we do have reasons to feel like that." He looked at my optics. "That Terrorcon is the first Cat. II, and we don't know how will it affect us, or whether the robots will be able to stop it. Not only that, the new Mark II we have sent there, didn't have time to make a test session and it's pilots are amateurs. It's their first time." He looked at the screen again. "We also don't know if Cherno Alpha will respond well to the improvements."
"It will. Shockwave and I have been working hard for that." I said self confidence. "I'm sure it will."
"I hope you're right. Because I have a bad feeling." His comment froze all my systems down.
For a couple of minutes, there was no kind of interaction between the Pan Pacific and the Jaegers. Then the oldest Steam talked. "Hey, Alpha, is the Kiddo there?"
"Yes, he is." The leader responded.
"Tell him Cherno is working smoothly and perfectly fine, we have also incremented the speed. Soon we will locate the beast." I grinned for myself at that comment. "He has gold servos and a great mind!"
The other pilots informed as Diablo Intercept had located the beast, and the fight began. We could see how did they battle, dodging fast and throwing lethal attacks on their opponent. Not far away, Cherno entered in view, holding the miracle mile. The combat was going well, they were getting the monster exhaust, its final seemed to be close, until the beast made a sharp movement which lead the Mark II lose its balance and fell to the ground. The Terrorcon attacked the limbs of the Jaeger, and it reduced it to scrap. We all watched in horror how the Con Pod was smashed. Ratchet was right something wasn't right. Now all our hopes were on Cherno.
The Kaonian titan responded fast, retaking the mission, and putting the Tesla fists into action. The Steams fought, gaining terrain hit after hit. Two agonic hours were gone when finally the Jaeger was able to defeat the beast. "Cherno Alpha to base, Raythe is off lined. We're on our way back."
Shockwave moved towards Alpha Trion, and informed, "The next attack will occur in six months and twelve days."
"Prowl, reset the War Clock." Alpha ordered. "Since we have lost our newest Mark II, it's necessary to speed up the construction of the next one and see if Polyhex has any other." He turned towards his CCO. "Soundwave, need you to comm. Polyhex Shatterdom, Freedom Path, and ask if there's any functional Jaeger, in process or in good enough conditions to be repaired. If they do, we will need them to bridge it here." The faceless mech nodded and started tapping on the keyboard.
Alpha turned towards his scientist. "Knockout come here." I moved fast until I was by Shockwave's side. "You two will have to work on Tacit Ronin and repair him up as soon as possible. We need that brilliant mind and those golden servos working, chop-chop. I also want you to get Romeo Blue ready. We will look for two new pilots. We cannot afford to lose any other Jaeger. We've got just two months to do everything, we need to over take the situation and train the new pilots. Understood?"
"Understood." We both said.
We greeted and both of us returned to our work with the Tarnian titan. This was a race against the clock, and the time was already slipping away, we couldn't afford to lose any more.